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I gave away my last lime green shirt last night -- we'll have "top 10" polling places pretty well covered through the day. Looking forward to meeting more voters on a gorgeous day - no reason this can't be a banner year for participation!

Folks please help by putting any signs that accidentally fell down in the past 8 hours back up. I drove around abt 9 pm and they were all good, but we all know the real accidents don't happen till after mid-night. Good Luck everyone. C U out there in a few hours.

I was the 44th election day voter at the Patterson Precinct at 7:55 am. There were 8 people behind me waiting for ballots. Matt C and Jon Dehart were in the parking lot. Interesting choice for location as discussion of both candidates has been extensive in the precinct suggesting to me that there are unlikley to be undecided voters in Patterson, but I could be wrong.

I think you are being subtle by focusing on strategy, Jeff. But let's put some ideas out there for discussion. I would guess their presence at Patterson has to with DeHart and Czajkowski hoping to capitalize on the strong opposition to the new location of the IFC Community House in the Homestead Park area in that precinct. For example, they both attended this exclusive meeting of Community House opponents to discuss how to influence the election: http://orangepolitics.org/2011/10/homestead-park-citizens-organi. Kevin Wolff has also notably tried to capitalize on this issue with his fear-mongering flyer: http://orangepolitics.org/2011/10/community-house-resident-responds-wolff.

I was not intentionally trying to be subtle. I'd say that DeHart and Czajkowski appear to be working together in Patterson in strongly opposing the Community House location and seem to be coordinating city wide. While Wolff is also opposing the Community House I've observed no evidence of his working in coordination with Czajkowski and DeHart.My reaction to seeing them this morning primarily strategy related. In 2007 Mr. Czajkowski received 65 of the 511 votes cast in Patterson for town council for 12.7% of the total, a 5th place finish behind Sally Green. 511 votes represented 2.4% of all votes cast for town council. In 2009 Mr. DeHart won Patterson with 142 of the 791 cast for 18% of the total. His city-wide total of 2844 votes was 730 short of 4th place. 791 votes represented 2.9% of all votes cast for town council.Let's assume that the Community House issue raises the turn out to 900 votes in total. It's hard to predict how many double shot Czajkowski-DeHart voters there may be. I'll guess that Mr. DeHart may increase his share to 22% of the votes cast from a combination of some people not voting for him and some people double shoting for him. This would suggest a net gain of 56 votes, going from 142 in 2009 to 198 this year. Of course, I could be way off.My orginal comment was that I think most of the voters in Patterson have already made up there mind before they get to the polling place giving Mr. DeHart a relatively small number of potentially persuadable people to talk to. For example, maybe he can generate a net gain of 5 votes by being at Patterson. My experience as an election day volunteer is that some people can be persuaded on the day of. Had I been his campaign manager, I would have sent him elsewhere.

Great analysis Jeff. From a strategy standpoint there is not a definitive advantage to be gained by DeHart or Czajkowski in Patterson. While some voter can be persuaded day of, not enough to make it worth the time.As for Wolff, I think that working with him in any capacity after his fake child abduction flyer would be the kiss of death for any candidate this cycle. That was a really poisonous move.

True, but it's only a little bit worse than some of his past year's antics such as touting his credentials as being "married" when running against Mark Kleinschmidt (who is gay). Or having his wife Mary Wolff run in the Democratic commissioner primary while he ran in the Republican race at the same time. "Crazy" only begins to describe it.

Totally agree. I met him shortly after moving here from Fort Bragg in 2008 and he has bugged me ever since. That "memo" was really the ultimate in fear-mongering and race baiting. Ugh. Crazy does NOT cover it.

I wish I could campaign effectively in my own precinct. But the no campaigning barrier is just too far from where people park (and there's no shoulder to stand on) to make it worth it. so I'll adopt some other precinct as my favorite

Eastsiders got started early - I was the 15th voter at 7:00. Votes for Kleinschmidt, Bell, Baker, Storrow and Czjakowski. CHCCS votes for Bedford, Burroughs, Kelley, Barrett and Castellano.I will have my predictions up shortly at Chapel Hill Ed Watch (www.chapelhilledwatch.com) and will cross post to Orange Politics.Most everyone I have talked to is in support of the 1/4 cent tax, but I am still afraid....

In case anyone doesn’t know what I mean by how Cedar Falls tends to vote: 413 people voted. Of those, 382 voted for mayor, with no write-ins. Of those 382, 113 (29.58%) voted for Kevin Wolff. As far as I can tell, the only place Wolff got a higher percentage was in Patterson with 34.69%. But in Patterson, only 147 of the 594 voted for anyone for mayor, including one write in. CF also had the second highest return for Matt Czajkowski for TC at 23.16%, beaten only by Patterson’s 23.77%.

We have had reports from election monitors that poll workers at the Center for Dramtic Arts are talking students out of voting provisionally. This is disapointing, especially after campus was stripped of its early vote location. I spoke to some of the poll workers at 630 AM and was told that they planned to talk students who came in requesting a provisional ballot out of voting provisioanlly and instead would be told they should go find their precinct. Hopefully these were isolated incidents, after all the number of provisional ballots cast on campus last year was greater than the margin of the Mayoral Race...

I applaude workers at Center for Dramatic Arts for trying to encourage students (and any other voter) to vote at their correct polling site. Students are 1 mile or less from their assigned site, but choose to burden this location with extra paperwork because they "can't make it to their assigned site". If these same students can make it from their dorms to Franklin Street (approx. 1 1/2 miles) they can certainly do as other adults in the county and go to their assigned location. Also, I don't think the early voting location was taken off campus as the site located at University Square is located beside Granville Towers Dorm.

Not sure when Orange will vote, but in the assumption that it will be in 2012, I plan to announce the campaign kickoff at the Transportation Advisory Committee meeting not long after 9 AM tomorrow (Weds.) Our re-elected mayor won't be there, but I bet he'll have something to say at the Council meeting in the evening. Ed Harrison